Enable Ping in Windows Server Firewall?

Question

I've just installed Windows Server 2008 on a server and I'm able to connect through Remote Desktop but can't ping. Do I need to open an special port on the firewall to be able to ping a server?

Answer 1

By default Windows 2008 does not respond to pings. To enable:

Administrative Tools

Windows Firewall with Advanced Security

Inbound Rules

File and Printer Sharing (Echo Request - ICMPv4-IN)

Enable Rule

You should now be able to ping your server from the LAN.

Answer 2

Enable ping through the Windows Firewall at the command line like so:

netsh firewall set icmpsetting 8

Apparently this has changed in Windows Server 2008 R2 and newer, to:

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="ICMP Allow incoming V4 echo request"
    protocol=icmpv4:8,any dir=in action=allow

That's.. uh... quite a mouthful.

Answer 3

in powershell you can use :

# allow-icmp.ps1
# Sets up windows firewall to allow inbound ICMP - using PowerShell
# Thomas Lee - tfl@psp.co.uk

#create firewall manager object
$FWM=new-object -com hnetcfg.fwmgr

# Get current profile
$pro=$fwm.LocalPolicy.CurrentProfile

# Check Profile
if ($pro.IcmpSettings.AllowInboundEchoRequest) {
    "Echo Request already allowed"
} else {
    $pro.icmpsettings.AllowInboundEchoRequest=$true
}

# Display ICMP Settings
"Windows Firewall - current ICMP Settings:"
"-----------------------------------------"
$pro.icmpsettings

Answer 4

You will want to allow ICMP packets through. Ping doesn't use TCP, so there is no port to open.

Answer 5

Run these 2 in admin powershell, it enables both ipv6 and ipv4 inbound pings on all networks (public/private/domain):

Set-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "File and Printer Sharing (Echo Request - ICMPv4-In)" -enabled True
Set-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "File and Printer Sharing (Echo Request - ICMPv6-In)" -enabled True

It is equivalent to this https://serverfault.com/a/6049/147813

Answer 6

Another way of fixing this:

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="ICMP Allow incoming V4 echo request" protocol=icmpv4:8,any dir=in action=allow

Answer 7

Pay attention to use the correct quotation marks. Some web sites replace the quotation marks by similar symbols which cause syntax errors. C.f. enter link description here